À nous la liberté (English: Freedom for Us) is a 1931 French film directed by René Clair. With a score by Georges Auric, this film has more music than any of Clair's early films.

Plot summary

The film opens with an image of a wooden toy horse. Gradually we
observe that this is an assembly line in a prison, staffed by prisoners.
They sing (La liberté, c'est pour les heureux = "Freedom is for
the happy") as they work. Close-ups of two prisoners (Louis and Émile,
the film's main protagonists) indicate they've taken a work tool. The
prisoner next to Louis occasionally looks on, looking somewhat bored.
After dinner everyone goes back to their cell. After feigning sleep
during a guard's nightly rounds, Louis and Émile sing the title song as
they resume a project of sawing off the prison window. Émile cuts
himself, and Louis kindly mends the wound with a handkerchief. The
window breaks free and they attempt to escape. Louis is able to get over
the retaining wall, but Émile is not successful. Louis escapes,
accidentally knocks someone off a bicycle, and rides off on the bicycle.
Meanwhile we hear a chorus suggesting he's about to be captured (Ce sera bientôt fini
= "It'll soon be over"). Louis heads into a village emblazoned with the
words "Finishing Line" - the cyclist he knocked over was in a bicycle
race, and Louis has won first prize.
Louis enters a store to purchase some handkerchiefs. While the
proprietor is looking in a backroom, he hears Louis's muffled cries for
help. After being unbound, Louis explains that someone robbed the store
and made off with the money. He points the direction and a group of
people run after the thief, leaving Louis alone, revealing that it was
he who stole the money, feigning the story.
A montage sequence follows in which we see Louis transform himself
from a poor record merchant, to the well-attired and well-mannered head
of an industrial factory that produces record players. Interior shots of
the assembly line bear a strong resemblance to the assembly line seen
at the beginning of the film.
Meanwhile, behind the factory we see an open field. Émile (apparently
now out of prison) has been sleeping, and wakes up to a beautiful day. A
flower sings "Ami, l'ombre de la prison a cédé la place au soleil" =
"Friend, the shadow of prison has given way to the sun." A policeman
comes by and tells Émile he must get to work. But he is put in a cell
for resisting arrest. Through the prison window, he sees more flowers
surrounding an apartment window and thinks he hears them singing
("Viens, toi que j'aimerai" = "Come, you who I will love"). Then a
lovely woman, Jeanne, appears at the window and appears to be the source
of the singing. Sad at his predicament, he tries to hang himself from
the prison window. But the gate is too weak, comes loose and falls on
Émile's head, enabling him to escape. He stands by the apartment
entrance, looking up at the flower-covered window, but is slightly
disappointed to realize that the flowers are not singing, and that it's
only a recording. Then he realizes that Jeanne has emerged from the
apartment with her Uncle, who appears to be overly-protective and pulls
her away from Émile, and kicks him. A commotion and chase ensue in which
Émile runs as we realize that Jeanne already has a boyfriend, Paul.
Émile makes his way into the factory and lands in the recruitment
department. A recorded song ("Vous qui désirez un emploi" = You, who
desires employment") instructs him on how to be measured, weighed, and
fingerprinted. In the next scene we see Émile back on an assembly line,
this time assembling phonographs. Upon seeing Jeanne also working in the
factory, Émile becomes absent minded, causing great consternation and
humor on the assembly line (This scene at the assembly line was probably the inspiration for the opening scene of Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times)
A guard tries to stop Émile from talking to Jeanne and they chase after
him. He is stopped by guards near the foot of a grand staircase at the
doorway of an office. Louis emerges with aides, and Émile gets his
attention. At first Louis does not appear to remember his prison friend,
but takes him into his office, thinking this is an extortion plot.
After a scuffle, Émile cuts himself. As Louis tends to the wound with
his handkerchief, he recalls that he did similarly when the two tried to
break out of prison at the film's outset. His attitude changes to one
of friendship, as he embraces Émile and sing a brief reprise of the
title song.
The scene is a dinner party at Louis's house. Neither his guests nor
his wife Maud, nor her gigolo lover think much of Louis. Meanwhile,
Louis and Émile don't care, and enjoy sending up the haughtiness of his
life style, climaxing in another reprise of the title song, as the two
friends dance in front of a painting of Louis which he has damaged with a
bottle of wine.
With her suitcases packed, Maud leaves the house. Émile also leaves,
and briefly encounters an ex-prisoner on the street. (This is the same
person who was sitting next to Louis at the film's outset.) Louis is
thrilled to look out the door at the departing Maud, but does not see
the ex-prisoner, who makes a nod of understanding to himself.
Back at the factory, Émile tries to make overtures to Jeanne, but is
thwarted by guards, eventually finding himself in Louis's office. Louis
has been explaining that his new factory will opening the next day,
increasing productivity. Upon seeing his friend interrupt, Louis is
slightly annoyed until Émile explains that he wants to court Jeanne,
another worker. From his office card files, Louis is able to produce a
picture profile of Jeanne, but this is automatically followed by a
profile of her Uncle. Louis invites both Jeanne and her Uncle into his
office to explain Émile's interest, and offers some money along with it.
Uncle is impressed, but Jeanne is bewildered and unhappy.
Louis arrives at home, wondering where his servants are. He discovers
them tied up, and enters a room filled with ex-convicts, now gangsters,
led by the person who sat next to him in the opening scene and who
encountered Émile the other night. They sing briefly, before the lead
gangster reveals their purpose. They want to extort money from Louis by
threatening to reveal that he's an escaped convict. Louis refuses to
accept.
Lovers' quarrel in the Magic Park. The scene opens in Luna Park, with
Émile happily talking with Uncle, while Jeanne looks very unhappy. Paul
sitting at a distance, looks on disapprovingly. During the scene,
Jeanne is able to get away and be alone with Paul. Émile, unseen,
finally finds her and realizes that she already has a boyfriend.
Émile longingly looks up at Jeanne's apartment window, as she happily
waves to Paul. He realizes that he can't have her. While he's alone on
the street, a policeman tries to question Émile, who runs into the
factory for safety, but is pursued by guards.
Meanwhile, the gangsters have asked to visit Louis's factory. He
leads them into a secret room within his office, and then seals the door
behind him. As the gangsters realize they're trapped, Louis empties his
safe of all his money, putting it into a small suitcase on his desk.
Émile finds him, and Louis explains that he's about to be denounced by
the gangsters. He then hides Émile while he briefly speaks to the guards
who have been searching for his friend. At the same time, another
ex-convict enters Louis's office and takes the suitcase. When Louis
returns with Émile, he realizes the suitcase is missing and tries to
look for the person with it. Pursued by guards, Émile accidentally opens
the secret room through which all the gangsters emerge. Both Émile and
the gangsters chase after Louis, who chases after the ex-con who took
the suitcase. This ex-con is able to penetrate to the roof the factory,
but is caught, leaving the suitcase on the roof. Apprehended, the
gangsters show the police Louis's picture as a convict, but they are
taken away.
It is the inauguration of the new factory with crowds of dignitaries
and workers assembled. Louis gives a speech extolling its virtues of
productivity. A deaf old man cuts the ribbon, and a chorus sings a slow
march, "Gloire au bonheur" = "Hail to happiness," as the automatic
assembly line produces portable phonographs. Another speaker begins a
speech, while Louis sees the policeman. The policeman has realized that
Louis is an escaped ex-convict, and patiently waits for the festivities
to end to apprehend him. Louis makes a concluding speech in which he
gives the factory to the workers, and says that fate will take him to a
different place. As another speaker continues, a wind begins to pick up,
gently blowing the decorations. It also gradually begins to blow the
money that was in Louis's suitcase, still sitting on the roof of the
factory. Gradually, bills appear on the factory grounds, testing
everyone's propriety, as they look frustrated at not wanting to appear
uncivilized by bending down to pick up the money. But Louis has no
inhibitions: He immediately recognizes what and where the money is and
begins going after it. This is turn launches everyone into a chase after
the money. The scene turns to a merry chaos as the dignitaries in top
hats wildly chase after money.
The final scene of the film shows the now-idyllic factory. Instead of
working, only a few workers now play cards, as the automated factory
does all the work. The camera pans along to another area by a brook,
festively decorated with ribbons. Most of the workers are here, dancing
and enjoying themselves to a reprise of the song "Ami, l'ombre de la
prison" which blends into "Viens, toi que j'aimerai" as we see Jeanne
and Paul, happily dancing with each other. A cut takes us to Louis and
Émile, now tramps, entertaining people on a roadside by singing the
third verse of the title song. The people throw coins at the two tramps.
A rich car passes, making Louis momentarily dream of what he once had.
After a swift kick in the rear by Émile, the two head off down the road
to the final strains of the title song.

Cast

Henri Marchand as Emile

Raymond Cordy as Louis

Rolla France as Jeanne

Paul Ollivier as L'Oncle

Jacques Shelly as Paul

Andre Michaud as Le Contremaitre

Germaine Aussey as Maud - La Femme De Louis

Leon Lorin as Le Vieux Monsieur Sourd

William Burke as L'Ancien Detenu

Vincent Hyspa as Le Vieil Orateur

Production

Along with his two first sound films, Sous les toits de Paris (1930) and Le Million (1931), À nous la liberté
shows Clair continuing to experiment with the possibilities of sound
film. The image of a flower in combination with an unseen voice leads
the viewer to think the flower is singing. Once accepted, the viewer is
led to accept that a chorus of flowers is singing when Émile views the
window from prison. As he does with narrative, Clair reveals the truth
slowly and in a circuitous way so as to produce comedy and satire, in
this case, by first suggesting the flowers are singing, and then that
Jeanne is singing, when in fact it is a phonograph—revealed only because
it runs down.
An aural flashback occurs when Émile re-encounters Louis, and a small
argument results in Émile getting cut. As Louis bandages the cut, the
soundtrack plays the non-musical marching of the prisoners (who wore
wooden clogs).
Many sound effects are achieved not through natural sound but through
Auric's musical score. In the phonograph factory, the "sound" of
assembly line mechanization is done through music (using xylophones,
among other instruments). There are several passages such as when Louis
keys in the numbers to retrieve the profiles of Jeanne and her Uncle,
where only the music supplies an accompanying sound.

Release and reception

Politics

À nous la liberté comments on society by depicting industrial working conditions as not much different from being in prison. DVD Verdict's
Barrie Maxwell adds that the film depicts "a France oblivious to all
going on around it, as portrayed by the sequence in which an aging
French politician drones on to his audience about justice and liberty
and patriotism, while the audience has long since lost interest,
preferring instead to concentrate on chasing money that has accidentally
fallen out of a bag and is now blowing in the wind."[citation needed]
The film had two scenes cut out of it after its original release by
its director. Many fans of the film have objected to this since the cut
footage adds up to about ten minutes of footage.[citation needed]

Chaplin controversy

The film later became embroiled in controversy with the release of Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times
(1936), which bore some similarities to this film, such as the conveyor
belt gags. In the end, instead of going to court, they reached a
settlement, but the whole episode lasted around a decade. Chaplin
maintained that he had never seen the film, as did everyone else at the
studio.
René Clair himself was never a part of the case and was actually
quite embarrassed by it, since he had great admiration for Chaplin and
had always maintained that they were all in debt to him, and any
inspiration Chaplin might have gotten from his film would be an honor
for him. A speculation over this case was that it was a conspiracy from Nazi Germany to discredit Chaplin; À Nous la Liberté's production company, Tobis-Tonbild-Syndikat (de), was German. It is notable that the out-of-court settlement was reached only after the end of World War II.